Former Bolivian interim president Jeanine Añez said on Friday that she and several allies were arrested after issuing a warrant accusing her of terrorism and rioting in connection with the removal of her predecessor, former president. Evo Morales, in 2019.
“The political persecution has begun,” Me. Añez wrote on Twitter, along with an image of the warrant. Authorities arrested her on Saturday morning in her hometown of Trinidad and transported her to the capital, La Paz.
Bolivia has been embroiled in political unrest since the end of 2019, when Mr. Morales, a divisive and transforming socialist leader who was the country’s first indigenous president, sought a fourth term.
The presidential campaign ended in a number of disputed votes, deadly protests and calls from the military for Mr. Morals to leave. He fled the country, and many called it a coup. Others accused his government of trying to set up the vote, showing that he was winning by a wide margin to avoid a run-off.
The election and the ensuing violence left deep rifts between indigenous and European descendants.
When Mr. Morales left, also retiring his vice president and leading senators from the Senate, and leaving Mr. Añez, a senator from a small, conservative party and political enemy of Mr. Morales, then to take over the leader. At the end of 2020, a new election by Luis Arce, an ally of Mr. Morales, certainly.
Both mr. Morales as me. Añez used the judiciary to pursue their critics. Mr. During his campaign, Arce promised to turn a new page in Bolivian politics.
“I’m not interested in power,” he said. Arce said in an interview shortly before his election. He promises to stay in office for only five years – a contrast to Mr. Morales, who served nearly 14 years and fought to stay longer – and focused on fixing the economy.
As of Friday afternoon, at least two other ten people out of the ten who had suffered the warrant had been arrested by the authorities: former energy minister Rodrigo Guzmán and former justice minister Álvaro Coimbra, according to Gina Hurtado, an assistant to Mr. Guzmán.
Roger Cortéz, emeritus professor of political science at the Universidad mayor de San Andrés in La Paz, the political capital of Bolivia, said he saw the arrests as an attempt by the government of Mr. Arce to present a show of power at a time when it faces multiple political threats.
Ms Añez, who has largely disappeared from the political map, does not necessarily pose a danger to Mr. Arce in not. In local elections held earlier this month, she finished in third place in a race for Beni department governor.
But in the same election, the party of Mr. Arce, Movement Toward Socialism, lost big in a critical mayoral race in a former fortress called El Alto. The winner of the seat, Eva Copa, was once a leading member of the Movement Toward Socialism, but has since broken away from the party.
Her ability to win without party support was a major blow to the movement against socialism. She earned more than 60 percent of the vote.
At the same time, the government of Mr. Arce is increasingly investigating the handling of the economy and the coronavirus.
Mr. Cortéz said that the arrest of Ms. Añez was an attempt to infer from the government’s technical, ethical and practical inability to address serious issues. ‘
María Silvia Trigo reported.